# Sci Fi minerals **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 17, 2013, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028 "2013-09-17T04:02:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/41 "2013-09-17T18:01:44Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > Not in any version of the story I’ve ever heard of. Any chance of a cite? I haven’t a cite, but I’ve heard that too. As I recall things, Krypotonians were originally super-powered even on their home planet, being just more “highly evolved” humans. This was okay with the early Supes, who was only slightly more powerful than Spider-Man is now, but became problematic as his power level increased. So then they added the idea that Krypton was much larger (or denser) than Earth, with a correspondingly higher gravity, and so the humanoids there had evolved greater physical abilities. Which again sort-of explained the strength and speed, and perhaps the flight, but not the energy powers (heat vision, x-ray vision, arctic breath). So then they added the idea that yellow-sun radiation was also a factor. Initially the notion WASN’T that Kryptonians were solar batteries, incidentally; yellow-sun radiation was just magic, from their point of view, and anything from Krypton became more or less super on Earth. Unliving objects like the metal from Kal’s spaceship, or the blankets in which he was swaddled, simply become indestructible to any Earthly force. Mammals got super-powers; Krypto the Super-Dog got most of his master’s powers (except super-ventriloquism), along with human-level intelligence. (Still couldn’t talk, though.) I believe it was with the Byrne reboot that it became official that living humanoid Kryptonians were solar batteries. The energy from their own star wasn’t enough to turn them super,but the longer they were under a yellow sun the stronger they became, rather than instantly getting the whole powerset the second they were exposed to it. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/42 "2013-09-17T19:11:31Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > Wiki claims the [radio show.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krypton_%28comics%29#Radio) That’s about the best I could give as a cite, along with the tvtropes article on [Counter-Earth](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Counter-Earth). Apparently it was a common mind-worm in soft sci-fi for a time. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/43 "2013-09-17T19:16:27Z")
> [@Blakeyrat](#): > > I would like to point out that even _in-universe_, Corbomite was fictional. Kirk pulled it out of his ass to trick an alien. The captain’s log. Oh, come on. Somebody had to say it. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/44 "2013-09-17T20:24:18Z")
The only fictional element whose physical properties are truly worth discussing on an Internet message board is [Upsidaisium](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upsidaisium_(story_arc)). Maybe the anti-gravity is caused by antimatter, but then what prevents annihilation? 5 boxtops to the first Doper who explains it all. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/45 "2013-09-17T20:28:56Z")
Upsidaisium reminds me: Anybody mention cavorite yet? An anti-gravity materials from H.G. Well’s _First Men on the Moon_, and the McGuffin in Moore’s _The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen_. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/46 "2013-09-17T20:39:11Z")
Some of the elements in the [Look Around You Periodic Table](http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/lookaroundyou/series1/periodic.shtml) are… well… a little bit fictional. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/47 "2013-09-17T20:48:25Z")
Did someone mention Niven? Shall we discuss _scrith_? ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/48 "2013-09-17T20:54:33Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > [Upsidaisium](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upsidaisium_(story_arc)). The original unobtainium. That story influenced more than a few Dopers, I’d wager. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/49 "2013-09-17T21:13:11Z")
**Moderator Action** While this thread did start out as factual questions, it has since drifted out of GQ territory. Moving thread from General Questions to Cafe Society. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/50 "2013-09-17T22:23:05Z")
> [@Isilder](#): > > Krypton does form molecules. Flouride is strong enough to take electrons away and make KrF2 and KrF4 . See, if F has the electron, F is negative , the Kr is positive and they stick together. Its basically ionic. I admit a moment of surprise when I saw “XeF[sub]4[/sub]” in a college chemistry textbook. I thought it was a typo, after being told for years that inert gases don’t form compounds. Then reading on about just how greedily electronegative Fluorine is, I started to look at Xenon Tetrafluoride like four fratboys raping a drunken high school girl. Anyhoo… ---
**Author:** ![merickson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@merickson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/merickson)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/51 "2013-09-18T00:56:04Z")
> [@For You](#): > > Did someone mention Niven? Shall we discuss _scrith_? What about _scrith_? After that, we could go on to _twing_. All this talk of materials and their names reminds me of a story that I’m assured is true. In 1976, a group of physicists thought that they had discovered element 129. 129 protons is in an island of stability (i.e. theory says that it has non-radioactive isotopes) and they thought that they had found in in a geode. Well, they were writing up the paper and had to give this stuff its official name. A Reagan appointee at NSF (their funding source) suggested “bicentenium”. To avoid that horrible fate, they rushed to finish the paper and named the element after the Florida county where they found the geode. The found it in Lyno county and called the new element “lynoleum”. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/52 "2013-09-18T00:59:39Z")
_Scrith_ is opaque to, what, 40% of neutrinos, that is just plain absurd. How could such a material be fabricated to remain stable? Not even true neutronium is that opaque. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/53 "2013-09-18T01:15:03Z")
The whole story of _Ringworld_ is meant just to smack the reader upside the head with the concept that this thing is unimaginably advanced. The high neutrino opacity was just one of the many little ways Niven pulled that off. One can accept, just maybe, something that’s 100% opaque to neutrinos, like a stasis field or a GP hull. But 40%? It boggles the mind. And **merickson** , the islands of stability are a relative thing. Nobody knows just exactly how stable they would be, but it could well mean “half-life of seconds instead of nanoseconds”. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/54 "2013-09-18T01:27:27Z")
Kryptonite, being a metallic element named for the planet Krypton (the only known soruce), should be called kryptonium, by rights, but the people who named it were radio writers, not chemists, so you can’t really expect much. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/55 "2013-09-18T02:25:35Z")
There seems to be some debate as to whether kryptonite is an element or an alloy. The name would suggest an alloy, which would explain the variety of colors it comes in. Presumably, one could synthesize a kryptonite in the lab, but at least one constituent is unknown, so that would make it kind of a challenge. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/56 "2013-09-18T06:57:03Z")
> [@For You](#): > > Did someone mention Niven? Shall we discuss _scrith_? And shadow square wire, and Sinclair molecule chain (and room temperature superconductors, probably) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/57 "2013-09-18T07:02:26Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The whole story of _Ringworld_ is meant just to smack the reader upside the head with the concept that this thing is unimaginably advanced. The high neutrino opacity was just one of the many little ways Niven pulled that off. One can accept, just maybe, something that’s 100% opaque to neutrinos, like a stasis field or a GP hull. But 40%? It boggles the mind. If it’s 40% Neutrino opaque _for any thickness_ of _Scrith_, then yes, that really is interesting - I guess it would imply some sort of dimensional weirdness - where the material isn’t really there as solid matter at all - but rather, what appears to be a finite chunk of something solid is in fact a single, object-shaped field. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/58 "2013-09-18T12:43:42Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > **Moderator Action** > > While this thread did start out as factual questions, it has since drifted out of GQ territory. > > Moving thread from General Questions to Cafe Society. That’s some pretty hot moderator action right there. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/59 "2013-09-18T12:56:44Z")
Star Trek also uses Latinum as currency, and the episode “Balance of Terror” had Rodinium, which Spock called the “hardest substance known to our science.” Speaking of which, anybody mention Adamantium yet? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028/60 "2013-09-18T18:31:04Z")
> [@leahcim](#): > > Besides, wasn’t Krypton, in its original incarnation, a “counter-Earth” (i.e. orbiting the sun at the same distance as Earth, but on the opposite side of the sun)? In that case, a good chunk of planet’s debris ending up on Earth seems very plausible. It would also explain the choice of the name “Krypton,” which means “hidden.” What I’ve always wanted to know is, if dilithium crystals are so damned important to a starship, why is it they never carry any extra ones? :dubious: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-minerals/669028.md?page=4)